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Neuroscience: Standard model

Nature volume 454, pages 682–685 (2008)Cite this article

Questions raised about the use of 'ALS mice' are prompting a broad reappraisal of the way that drugs are tested in animal models of neurodegenerative disease. Jim Schnabel reports.

Several years ago, clinical neurologist Michael Benatar set out to find a drug he could test on some of his patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This condition is apt to strike otherwise healthy adults, slowly destroying the neurons that control their muscles. Its roster of famous sufferers includes the physicist Stephen Hawking and the late US baseball star Lou Gehrig.

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  1. Jim Schnabel
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Jim Schnabel is a freelance writer based in Maryland.

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Focus on Neurodegeneration

User’s Guide to the Mouse

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ALS Therapy Development Institute

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

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Schnabel, J. Neuroscience: Standard model. Nature 454, 682–685 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/454682a

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